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Lessons From The Hotel That Fines Customers $500 For Negative Online Reviews

One New York hotel is learning the hard way that you can’t control what people say about you on the Internet.

Hudson, New York-based Union Street Guest House has had a long-standing policy of fining customers if they post a negative review on YelpYelp or other hotel review sites. Specifically, the hotel warns couples who book weddings there, that it will fine them $500 if anyone in their party disparages them online. From the hotel’s website, here’s the policy:

If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be a $500 fine that will be deducted from your deposit for every negative review of USGH placed on any internet site by anyone in your party and/or attending your wedding or event. If you stay here to attend a wedding anywhere in the area and leave us a negative review on any internet site you agree to a $500. fine for each negative review.

Apparently the hotel would refund the fine if the offending review was deleted.

Customers had been complaining for at least a year about this policy on Yelp, but things really got heated when two mediaoutlets outed the hotel on this issue. The story became a viral sensation after appearing on the front page of Reddit. The hotel tried to address the PR nightmare by deleting the policy from the hotel’s website (archive of it here) and issuing the following statement on it’s Facebook page (which they also then deleted):

The policy regarding wedding fines was put on our site as a tongue-in-cheek response to a wedding many years ago. It was meant to be taken down long ago and certainly was never enforced.

This is quite possibly the worst response the hotel owners could have made. Negative comments began flooding the hotel’s Facebook page, linking to reviews on Tripadvisor from customers who had been threatened with the fines. The hotel’s Yelp rating has just plummeted to 1 star with over a hundred new reviews like this one:

It is impossible to control what customers say about you, especially online. Don’t even try. Attempts at control will be outed as egregious customer bullying, and the more strident, the more it will spread on social networks through word of mouth.

If a customer does leave a negative review online, immediately address it. All businesses can make mistakes or have lapses in service. Thank the customer and apologize. Look to see how the feedback can improve your product or service. Responding to the review quickly and professionally shows that you are responsive and focused on the customer experience.

Be honest at all times. In this case, the hotel owner tried to explain that the policy was not enforced. Customers then posted evidence from past online reviews to show this to be false.

And in general, monitor online conversations about your company frequently. Always know what customers are saying about so you can constantly be improving your product/service and garner genuine positive reviews.

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